Workshop Description

The First International Workshop on Arabic Big Data & AI (IWABigDAI) aims at providing a forum for researchers to share and discuss their ongoing work related to AI and Big Data with a focus on the Arabic language. This Workshop is timely given the continued rise in research projects focusing on Big Data Analytics and Arabic-specific AI efforts such as Arabic Natural Language Processing. This workshop is endorsed by SIGARAB, an Association for Computational Linguistics Special Interested Group on Arabic Natural Language Processing.

Registration Link

https://app.micetribe.com/public/workspaces/chss/events/chss-2752/forms/att

Keynote Invited Talks

• Prof. Tim Baldwin: Fairness in Natural Language Processing

• Dr. Sanjay Chawla: Big Data: Going Beyond Predictions

• Prof. Iryna Gurevych: Detect – Verify – Communicate: Combating Misinformation with More Realistic NLP

• Prof. Nizar Habash: Gender Bias in Arabic Machine Translation

• Prof. Eduard Hovy: Explanation for AI

• Dr. Hassan Sawaf: Benchmarking as a Driver for Innovation

Tutorials

• Data Collection and Annotation for AI by Eng. Hamdy Mubarak (QCRI)

• NLP Text Visualization by Dr. Mahmoud El-Haj (Lancaster University)

Panels

• Panel 1: Arabic AI and Toxic Online Content Detection (Moderator: Prof. Hend Al Khalifa)

  • Panelists: Dr. Kareem Darwish, Dr. Tamer El-Sayed, Prof. Chiraz Laatiri, and Dr. Nedjma Ousidhoum

• Panel 2: Establishing an AI ecosystem in the MENA region: Challenges and Opportunities (Moderator: Dr. Kareem Darwish)

  • Panelists: Eng. Jay Alammar, Dr. Hussein Al-Natsheh, Dr. Hatem Haddad, Dr. Hassan Sawaf

• Panel 3: Artificial Intelligence for Cultural Heritage (Moderator: Dr. Stephan Ipert)

  • Panelists: Dr. Amr Al-Azm, Dr. Axel Kerep, Dr. Jens Schneider, Dr. James She

• Panel 4: Data Collection and Annotation Strategy for AI (Moderator: Dr. Houda Bouamor)

  • Panelists: Prof. Hend Al-Khalifa, Prof. Karim Bouzoubaa, Dr. Khalid Choukri, Prof. Iryna Gurevych, Prof. Mustafa Jarrar

• Panel 5: Big Models and their Impact on Arabic NLP (Moderator: Prof. Nizar Habash)

  • Panelists: Eng. Jay Alammar, Prof. Eduard Hovy, Dr. Preslav Nakov, and Dr. Imed Zitouni

• Panel 6: AI-Driven Predictive Language Models (Moderator: Dr. Tamer El-Sayed)

  • Panelists: Dr. Ahmed Abdelali, Dr. Bayan Abu Shawar, Dr. Mahmoud El-Haj, Prof. Azzedine Mazroui

• Panel 7: Creating Human-Centric, Fair, and Responsible AI in the Arab World (Moderator: Dr. Preslav Nakov)

  • Panelists: Prof. Ala Al-Fuqaha, Prof. Tim Baldwin, Prof. Mona Diab, Prof. Nizar Habash

Schedule (GMT+3 / Qatar Time)

DAY 1 - May 11, 2022

Time Duration

8:30 0:30 Registration

9:00 0:15 Welcome Remarks - Dr. Amal Al Malki (CHSS Dean) / Dr. Wajdi Zaghouani (Workshop Chair)

9:15 0:15 QNRF Welcome Note by Dr. Munir Tag

9:30 0:45 Keynote Talk 1 by Prof. Iryna Gurevych

10:15 0:15 Networking Break 1

10:30 0:45 Keynote Talk 2 by Dr. Hassan Sawaf

11:15 0:10 Short Break

11:25 1:00 Panel 1: Arabic AI and Toxic Online Content Detection

12:25 1:15 Break 3 (Lunch Break) / Poster Session

14:00 0:45 Keynote Talk 3 by Prof. Nizar Habash

14:40 1:00 Panel 2: Establishing an AI ecosystem in the MENA region: Challenges and Opportunities

15:40 0:10 Short Break

15:50 1:00 Panel 3: Artificial Intelligence for Cultural Heritage

16:50 0:10 Short Break

17:15 0:45 Panel 4: Data Collection and Annotation Strategy for AI

18:00 0:30 SIGARAB Meeting: Special Interest Group on Arabic Natural Language Processing

DAY 2 - May 12, 2022

Time Duration

9:00 0:45 Keynote Talk 4: Prof. Tim Baldwin

9:45 0:10 Short Break

9:55 1:00 Panel 5: Big Models and their Impact on Arabic NLP

10:55 0:15 Networking Break 3

11:10 0:45 Keynote Talk 5: Prof. Eduard Hovy

11:55 1:10 Break 3 (Lunch Break) / Poster Session

13:05 0:45 Keynote Talk 6: Dr. Sanjay Chawla

13:50 0:10 Short Break

14:00 1:00 Panel 6: AI-Driven Predictive Language Models

15:00 0:15 Networking Break 4

15:15 0:45 Tutorial 1: Data Collection and Annotation for AI by Eng. Hamdy Mubarak (QCRI)

16:00 0:15 Masader: Documenting Arabic NLP Data Resources. Mr. Zaid Alyafeai

16:15 0:10 Short Break

16:25 1:00 Panel 7: Creating Human-Centric, Fair, and Responsible AI in the Arab World

17:25 1:00 Tutorial 2: NLP Text Visualization by Dr. Mahmoud El-Haj

18:25 0:35 Lightning Talks

• Hussein T. Al-Natsheh . Arabic Language Understanding Evaluation (ALUE) Benchmark

• Hatem Haddad . Bridging the Gap between Academia and Industry: iCompass use case

• Mustafa Jarrar. Lexical Resources at Birzeit University

19:00 0:15 Closing remarks

Poster Sessions

Researchers will be invited to showcase their research projects during the two poster sessions. The posters format is vertical (Portrait). The Poster Boards cannot accommodate Landscape posters. You can print your poster in Portrait A0 (84,1 x 118,9cm).

SIGARAB Meeting

SIGARAB is the Special Interest Group of the Association for Computational Linguistics for researchers concerned with all aspects of Arabic NLP. There will be SIGARAB meetings co-located with the event.

Invited Speakers

• Prof. Tim Baldwin, Associate Provost and Head of NLP Department at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, UAE, and Melbourne Laureate Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, Australia

• Prof. Iryna Gurevych, Professor and Head of the UKP Lab, Technical University Darmstadt, Germany

• Prof. Eduard Hovy, Faculty member, Language Technology Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, USA

• Dr. Sanjay Chawla, Research Director of Qatar Centre for Artificial Intelligence (QCAI), Qatar

• Prof. Nizar Habash, Professor of Computer Science, New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE

• Prof. Mona Diab, Facebook AI and George Washington University, USA

• Dr. Imed Zitouni, Director Of Engineering, Google, USA

• Dr. Preslav Nakov, Principal Scientist, QCRI, Qatar

• Eng. Jay Alammar, Arpeggio Research, KSA

• Dr. Axel Kerep, Parcs solutions, Paris, France

• Dr. Hassan Sawaf, Founder of aiXplain, inc, Los Gatos, California, USA

• Dr. Kareem Darwish, Senior Scientist, aiXplain, inc, Los Gatos, California, USA

• Eng. Hamdy Mubarak, Principal Software Engineer, QCRI, Qatar

• Dr. Houda Bouamor, Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar

• Prof. Mustafa Jarrar, Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Birzeit University

• Prof. Chiraz Laatiri, Professor and former Minister of Culture in Tunisia, University of Manouba, Tunisia

• Prof. Hend Al-Khalifa, Professor at Information Technology Department, King Saud University, KSA

• Dr. Mahmoud El-Haj, Lecturer in Computer Science, Lancaster University, UK

• Dr. Tamer El-Sayed, Associate Professor, Qatar University, Qatar,

• Prof. Karim Bouzoubaa, Full Professor at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco

• Dr. Hussein Al-Natsheh, CTO - Unstructured Data Intelligence @ Beyond Limits, UAE

• Dr. Hatem Haddad, Co-Founder, and CTO of iCompass, Tunisia

• Prof. Azzedine Mazroui, Professor, University Mohammed I, Oujda, Morocco

• Dr. Bayan Abu Shawar, Associate Professor, Al Ain University, UAE

• Dr. Nedjma Ousidhoum, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Cambridge, UK

• Dr. Jens Schneider, Assistant Professor, HBKU, Qatar

• Dr. James She, Associate Professor, HBKU, Qatar

• Mr. Zaid Alyafeai, PhD Student, KFUPM, KSA

• Prof. Ala Al-Fuqaha, Associate Provost for Teaching and Learning at HBKU, Qatar

• Dr. Amr Al Azm, Associate Professor, Qatar University, Qatar

• Dr. Ahmed Abdelali, Senior Software Engineer, QCRI, Qatar

• Dr. Khalid Choukri, CEO of ELDA, Paris, France

Important Dates

Workshop: May 11th and May 12th, 2022

Organizers

Workshop Chair: Dr. Wajdi Zaghouani, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, HBKU

Student Volunteer Chairs:

• Ms. Chereen Al Churafa, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, HBKU

• Mr. Hussein Aldobashi, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, HBKU

Workshop Advisors:

• Prof. Nizar Habash, Professor, New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE

• Dr. Stephan Ipert, Director of Distinctive Collections (QNL), Qatar

• Dr. Preslav Nakov, Principal Scientist, QCRI, Qatar

Topics and themes include but are not limited to the following:

• Big Data Analysis of the Arabic Content

• AI applied to the Arabic language

• Language Resources for Semitic Languages (dictionaries, annotated data, corpus, etc.)

• Methodologies and tools for Language Resources construction and annotation

• Guidelines, standards, and best practices for Language Resources Creation

• Language technologies and their application

• Opinion mining and social media analytics.

• Computational Social Sciences in the context of the MENA region

Contact

If you have any questions about the event , feel free to email: wzaghouani@hbku.edu.qa